The Culture of Shut Up

◼ Too many debates about important issues degenerate into manufactured and misplaced outrage—and it's chilling free speech. - Jon Lovett/The Atlantic

...one day you found this rock and you realized that you could use the rock to write on a leaf. And so you developed a written language and taught it to everyone. And at the big village meetings, when the three elders at the front would have their arguments, villagers could participate. People would write things like, “I agree with you and appreciate your position.” Or “I hope you get cancer and die.” Or “Here’s a picture of what I ate for lunch.” Or “Please stop drawing pictures of food, no one cares what you ate for lunch.” Or “Check out this cat in a shoebox because adorable.”

But it turned out by the time we finally had this great way to communicate in our hands, we were already so angry and suspicious that the rock and leaf became a way to vent our frustrations not just as the elders but at each other.

Bill says, “I support single-payer village healthcare.”

And then Mary writes, “Bill is a faggot communist.”

And then Ted says, “I won’t shop at Mary’s boutique until Mary apologizes to Bill.”

Then Angela says, “Stand with Mary against the assault on her freedom of speech!”

And then Bill says, “Angela is a racist.”

And Jeff says, “Anyone who shops at Mary’s boutique is a racist.”

And Ted says, “Check your privilege.”

And Mary says, “I don’t remember who I am in this story but I’m furious.”

And then someone writes, “FUCKK YOU TED!!1!” in all caps with a bunch of typos.

Soon there were really only two kinds of messages people would write—either vicious personal attacks, or self-righteous calls for apology—until eventually the villagers, angry and exhausted and sick of the noise and rancor just started pelting each other with the rocks until all the rocks were broken and all the leaves were shredded and finally in the silence, after the dust had settled, the villagers shrugged their shoulders, and turned back toward the smug and satisfied village elders who were just waiting for their chance to regain supremacy—just waiting for the moment when the villagers would come crawling back, desperate to be led, desperate for the reassuring simplicity of the old order, of the establishment, of the way things used to be....

A tsunami of opposition to common core is about to spread across the state of California!

◼ Republican gubernatorial candidate Tim Donnelly of California predicted Monday that a “tsunami” of opposition to Common Core is soon about to hit. (Video, at the link) - The Blaze

“People are finally seeing what Common Core is … so the parents are beginning to react,” he said. “They’re going to take a stand and unite, and it’s going to start here in California because there’s just something in the air right now.”

Donnelly appeared on the Glenn Beck Program Monday with Katherine Duran, who made headlines last week after being “suspended” from her child’s school for 14 days for speaking out against the controversial educational standards.

It's time to repeal this ant-gun law before it results in another mass killing

Megyn Kelly Declares CAIR Is 'Not Getting' a Retraction for Covering Film on Islamic Women

◼ link - Newsbusters

When Karoluk asserted that “CAIR is actually a domestic organization, the biggest Muslim civil rights and advocacy group” in the nation, Goldstein countered by declaring:

They're a self-appointed group that claims to be a civil-rights group, but it's anything but.

CAIR has a systematic campaign to go around and target anybody who speaks publicly about the threat of militant Islam as Islamophobic time and time again. Shame on them for doing that.

Kelly then turned to Karoluk: “I still do not understand why calling attention to this problem that affects Muslim women would be objectionable to you. As a Muslim woman yourself, don't you want this to stop, and how do we make it stop if we don't shine a light on it?”

“Of course I want it to stop,” the CAIR representative responded, “and as I said, there are many Muslim women in organizations right here in the United States that are working on this issue.”

Goldstein then took the discussion in a different direction by asking Karoluk: “What's wrong with the people who are funding the movie because they're Jews?”

The human rights lawyer continued by stating: “What qualifies as being Islamophobic is raising awareness about Islamist terrorism and advocating for the human rights of Muslim women.”

Judging from the emotional debate regarding the documentary on Muslim women, CAIR can expect that not only will they not receive an apology from Megyn Kelly, but she is very likely to address the subject again -- and soon.

While the federal government was trumpeting the benefits of Obamacare to boost enrollment earlier this year, about 1,800 families in New Jersey were receiving letters telling them their children would be losing their health coverage last week.

◼ The Affordable Care Act — the federal law that mandates everyone have insurance — effectively killed FamilyCare Advantage, a low-cost option for kids in New Jersey created six years ago for parents who earned too much to qualify for Medicaid and other subsidized programs but too little to buy on a policy on their own. - New Jersey On-Line

◼ Dems rethinking now that it's hitting them. - Discussion at Lucianne

The strangest thing happened: concealed carry and a police crackdown on bad guys has reduced murders in Chicago. Wonder why Rahm isn't crowing about it?

◼ You’re definitely not going to hear this from Piers Morgan (not that you want to hear anything from Piers Morgan) but according the Washington Times, “Chicago police are reporting that the murder rate for the first quarter of the year is the lowest it’s been in more than 50 years, which gun advocates are attributing to a concealed carry law passed in Illinois last year. - Allen West

The first three months of 2014 have seen the fewest number of homicides since 1958 — six fewer than this time in 2013, and 55 fewer than this time in 2012, The Chicago Sun-Times reported.”